Just 20, Soto lifts Nats to Game 1 win over Cole, Astros

HOUSTON — Gerrit Cole against Max Scherzer was the hyped main event and predicted to remind baseball fans of World Series past when Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, Sandy Koufax and Whitey Ford dominated MLB’s premier event.

Well, the feature fizzled, but there was more than enough sizzle to Tuesday night’s Game 1 in which the Nationals topped the Astros, 5-4, in front of a sold-out Minute Maid Park crowd of 43,339.

Nationals left fielder Juan Soto, who turns 21 on Friday, hit an opposite-field solo homer off Cole to left and added a two-run double against the best pitcher in baseball in the past four-plus months. Sean Doolittle surfaced from the visitors’ bullpen to retire Michael Brantley for the final out of the eighth with George Springer on second and the Nationals clinging to a 5-4 lead. Doolittle remained in the game to strike out AL MVP candidate Alex Bregman and get Yuli Gurriel and Carlos Correa on stress-free fly balls to center to seal the victory.

Game 2 is set for Wednesday night, when the Astros will turn to Justin Verlander attempting to get the best-of-seven Series even. Stephen Strasburg goes for the Nationals.

Since Cole’ last loss was May 22, Soto was asked how he was able to homer and double off the gas-throwing right-hander who spurned the Yankees for UCLA in 2008 and will be heavily linked to them this offseason as a free agent.

“For me, he’s really good. He’s been throwing a lot of good pitches today. I’m glad I face him in spring training, too. So I know how the ball going to be, how high it going to be — the curveball, the slider, everything, because I face him in spring training,’’ Soto said, referring to the fact the Nationals and Astros share a West Palm Beach, Fla., facility. “I got the report, he throw a lot of fastball, he likes to throw the fastball. I just sit there and waited for the fastball.’’

Cole admitted he didn’t have his best stuff and it showed. In seven innings he gave up five runs and eight hits. Scherzer wasn’t sharp either. He required 96 pitches to register 12 outs and finished with 112 in five frames. And when he was done Nationals manager Dave Martinez used a strategy that has become common in October: starter Patrick Corbin came out of the bullpen.

“For me it’s about playing one game. And that’s what we focus on, is just worry about the game at hand and then go from there,’’ Martinez said of Corbin, who was, and still is, a possibility to start Game 3 Friday night in Washington after throwing 21 pitches in the sixth, when he gave up a hit and struck out two. “This is stuff, like I said, based on conversations I have with our guys and what they can do and how they feel. I don’t foresee Max coming out of the bullpen. I don’t. We need him down the road again. But Corbin had a bunch of days off. It was his bullpen day again, so I was just going to try to utilize him if we had to, and he came in and did great.’’

Tanner Rainey replaced Corbin and gave up a leadoff home run to Springer in the seventh. It was Springer’s fifth straight World Series game with a homer, a MLB record. Two one-out walks forced Martinez to call for Daniel Hudson and he stranded two. An inning later it was Doolittle stranding Springer at second followed by the perfect ninth.